So i want to be a pro... ideas? suggestions?

I love doing SEO work and am relatively new to it. Im currently working on two sites and am getting great results for both, but 2 sites under the belt is still holding me to the amateur level.
I like to think of myself as a Ecommerce Management Expert (if there is such a thing) based on the last 4 sites ive worked for. I analyze the company, and with some hard work, i have increased sales by and average of 70% and profit by an avg of 11% if you avg all 4 together. Ive got a knack for management/sales, but i really want to be able to sell myself as a package deal. Which means i need to improve my seo skills as i am a firm beleiver that seo is one of the most important aspects of what i do.

SO im asking, is there hope for me? How do i know? how did you all get started? and are there any "tests" or anything like that to let me know if im ready.

Thanks guys and ill probalby have many more questions in the future.

Justin
InjectedPerformance.com

A good thing to do is to study and post here frequently, answering lots of questions. At first you might not be able to answer very many then you will be able to answer more and more as your knowledge grows. If you are helpful members will start asking you to help with their site. They will see the good advice that you give for free and imagine what they would get if they paid you.

I know of a few people here who get clients because of their posting. And some who don't take clients who are still solicited. When I need help with something (I am mainly a content creator and look to others for the technical decisions) I always get it from someone that I know who posts at a forum. Reading their posts tells me who is competent, who is not, and who has a style that is compatible with my own.

Create a site of your own - Service related or whatever and experiment on it. Or take your existing client's site and try to position it better, higher - maybe free - experiment on the sites and for any experiment - you will have questions and once you build experience you can answer lot of questions on many forums like this one - eventually people will respect you - and you will be a PRO.

Good luck.....

You do the same thing you would if you were learning basketball or baseball or nearly any other sport. You would practice day and night until you fall asleep playing the game. These are the guys who make it to the top and who win the games.

It is exactly the same with SEO. Practice makes perfect. Read, read, read and keep reading, then put the knowledge to work on personal/business sites run by yourself. Test different ideas. You got to be like Edison. Be able to make 100 mistakes to get 1 right. Don't give up.

SEO takes research, and tons of practice. You aren't going to get a top ten position for 'bad credit' overnight but practice, patience and research will help you achieve rankings like that.

There aren't no tests, classes, study material or many good books on seo atleast that I know of. But there is tons of good resources on the internet that are free that you can reseach.

Again if you are good you will get people and if you have experiance and share it with forum members with questions you will get clients. I get quite a few MSN contacts a day from SeoChat and another seo forum who want seo just because of my posts. Needless to say these aren't the best clients. But it can lead to better. Start out with a small site, use it as a reference and do a slightly larger site and keep doing it till you get as high as you think you can go.

I went to school, got my degree, and it was only then did I know I was a pro SEO. I took on some sites, got some results and it was only then did I know I was a pro SEO. I've posted for years, written articles, tried, failed, did some more SEO training, and then I knew I was an SEO pro. I'm still researching, still working, still creating new and fun ways to be a pro, stay a pro, try to be a pro, or whatever u want to call an SEO pro.

Thanks for all the advice guys. Im currently helping a site do some of the basic opt while its being built and have offered my services to them as a resume building experience. Ive done great things (i think anyways, i guess its relative) with the sites im working on now and hope to continue with others until ive got enough under my belt to make some money doing what i do.